Best Browser for Blocking Fraud? Opera!

Fraudulent websites, called phishing sites, trick users into giving up sensitive security credentials by masquerading as valid secure sites. Modern browsers do their best to flag such sites and protect their users. In a recent AV-Comparatives test, Opera beat out the competition for phishing protection.

In the movies, hackers work hard breaking into electronic networks to steal passwords. In the real world, they just politely ask for your credentials using a phishing website designed to look exactly like a valid financial website. If you log in to the fake website, you compromise your own security.

Fortunately, most popular browsers include some degree of antiphishing protection. Unfortunately, their effectiveness varies widely. AV-Comparatives just released the results of a test examining how well popular browsers detect and block these frauds.

I test antiphishing protection for my own security reviews by checking URLs that have been reported as fraudulent, but not yet verified. I check each one myself, using only those that are clearly fraudulent and clearly attempt to steal login credentials. I find that a significant majority of current security suites are less effective at phishing prevention than Internet Explorer 8 alone. However, Internet Explorer didn't come out on top in the AV-Comparatives study.

Testing MethodologyDuring nine days in December, researchers at AV-Comparatives gathered almost 300 verified phishing URLs from real-world fraudulent email messages. Phishing websites typically vanish after a day or two, so they tested each URL immediately upon discovery. Each browser's score is simply the percentage of fraudulent URLs detected and blocked.

My own antiphishing tests use Internet Explorer 8, because the test system I use runs Windows XP. IE8 has averaged around 65 percent detection in my recent tests. The Microsoft engineer who "owns" phishing protection wishes I would use IE9, as its SmartScreen Filter is even more accurate. AV-Comparatives used IE9, and it definitely scored better, with 82 percent detection.

However, Opera beat out IE9 significantly, with 94 percent detection. Because Norton Internet Security consistently does well at detecting frauds, I compare each suite's detection rate with Norton's detection of the same sample set. In recent tests Norton has averaged 94 percent detection, the same as what Opera alone achieved in the AV-Comparatives test. I'm impressed, Opera!

Stay Safe!Norton is good at detecting frauds, but according to my tests so are McAfee, Kaspersky, G Data, and Bitdefender. If you're using a security suite from a different vendor, be sure to leave your browser's phishing protection turned on. Even if you've chosen one of the suites that catches most frauds, it can't hurt to leave the browser's protection turned on, as a second line of defense.

Neil Rubenking served as vice president and president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years when the IBM PC was brand new. He was present at the formation of the Association of Shareware Professionals, and served on its board of directors. In 1986, PC Magazine brought Neil on board to handle the torrent of Turbo Pascal tips submitted by readers. By 1990, he had become PC Magazine's technical editor, and a coast-to-coast telecommuter. His "User to User" column supplied readers with tips...
More »